Forecast was for mega rain this afternoon and this evening so I planned to put the rack and Vaude panniers on the trike after my morning constitutional ride.

I decided to redo the route that crosses the river to Neuss on a bridge and then crosses back over at Zons with the little ferry. It’s a nice route, mostly quiet roads or cycle path, and there are some short cuts in case I have a disaster and have to rush home.

I have managed to avoid photographing any bridges today, but I did snap this barge which was covered in tractors (but the photo didn’t come out very well, unfortunately)

I also saw a pole with loads of shields with images on in Stürzelberg (which was rather a nice little village).

There’s an equivalent one of these the other side of the river after the Zons crossing (sorry about the bad photos)

As I approached Zons I did a slightly different route than the GPX track had, which took me all the way around that little bight at the bottom left hand corner of the map. The path was a bit rough there so I see why the downloaded GPX cut the corner off.

The ferry was on my side of the river when I arrived and I got on with about another 10 bikes and 3 cars. This was 10am.

Once on the other side of the river I whizzed round Schloss Benrath, then enjoyed the ride through the Hasseler Forst which leads across to the two lakes (which I didn’t visit this time round). I didn’t follow the original route at the end which was a bit awkward and involved going over a railway on a narrow and steep bridge, I instead just took main roads home.

It was a nice sunny day today and getting warmer. When I got back I extracted the trike rack from my car and fitted it and used my Vaude waterproof panniers for the afternoon’s lessons. Of course, it didn’t rain – it’s only just started now.

Tomorrow may also be a bit rainy so I’m not sure of my plans for a ride yet.